Katherine Lazo

Katherine Lazo is a seventh-year graduate student studying early modern England with an emphasis on the intersection of religion and politics.  Her dissertation, tentatively titled “‘Rigour upon men’s consciences’: National Identity, Religion, and English Catholics during the Interregnum”, explores the combustion of these two forces in the tumultuous mid-seventeenth century.  Focused on the Interregnum, Katherine’s dissertation integrates political thought, parliamentary action, foreign affairs, and economic history to explain how changing social and religious norms created a climate of de facto toleration for the much-maligned English Catholic community.

 Katherine presented her research at the 2015 North American Conference on British Studies and at The Politics of Religion in Early Modern Europe mini-conference in 2016.  She is trained in paleography, having received a grant to attend the English Paleography Summer 2014 Institute Sponsored by the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation at the Folger Shakespeare Library.  She served as President of Vanderbilt’s Graduate History Association in 2013-2014 and as co-President in 2014-2015.  Katherine works with Dr. Peter Lake.